In your introduction, get straight into the text you're interpreting, or at least the conceptual tension that you'll be exploring in that text. Don’t start with any version of the statement, “Humankind has always ... ,” or, “Since ancient times … ”. Don’t begin with some random quote from a Socrates or a Machiavelli. And don’t start with a definition from Webster’s Dictionary.
In your opening, be sure to introduce, name, and frame the texts and authors you’re addressing. The way and extent to which you should do so will depend on your situation. If you’re writing for Renaissance Quarterly, you don’t need to tell us that John Milton was an English epic poet who lived in the seventeenth century because all of your readers know that. If you’re writing about Milton in an essay for the Journal of Modern Psychology, however, that framing material would be needed.
Below are a few organizational structures for introductions. These are certainly not meant to be exhaustive. They are meant to give you a sense of the points that you need to hit upon in an introduction and some different ways you might go about doing so, given your subject and your proclivities.
The Q&A: This is perhaps the “gold standard” introduction. When in doubt, do the Q&A. In this three-paragraph opening, you pose a question or problem in the first paragraph (a “problem statement”), discuss the terms and tensions at play in that problem in the second paragraph, and then respond to or answer the problem in the third paragraph (with a “thesis statement”).
Paragraph 1: The Question
- Evidence
- Analysis
- Problem Statement
Paragraph 2: The Terms of the Question
- Text Statement (“This paper explores …”)
- Terms
Paragraph 3: The Answer
- Thesis (“As I argue in this essay, …”)
- What’s at Stake (“If so, …”)
Paragraph 4: Begin the Body of the Paper …
The Exemplar: In this two-paragraph opening, you offer an analysis in the first paragraph, and then extrapolate an argument from that analysis in the second paragraph.
Paragraph 1: The Exemplar
- Evidence
- Analysis
Paragraph 2: The Answer
- Thesis (“As I argue in this essay, …”)
- What’s at Stake (“If so, …”)
Paragraph 3: Begin the Body of the Paper …
The Canonball: In this one-paragraph opening, you offer a thesis statement in the very first sentence or two, and a short statement of what’s at stake, and then dive immediately into the body of the paper.
Paragraph 1: Thesis Paragraph
- Thesis (“I want to suggest that …”)
- What’s at Stake (“If so, …”)
Paragraph 2: Begin the Body of the Paper …
Conceptual Problem, Textual Problem: In this three-paragraph opening, you map out a conceptual problem in the first paragraph (establishing the relevant terms) and then show the manifestation of that problem in a specific text (using the terms you’ve established to unpack it).
Paragraph 1: Conceptual Problem
- Terms
- (Conceptual) Problem Statement
Paragraph 2: Textual Problem
- Text Statement (“This paper explores … [the established conceptual problem in a certain text]”)
- Evidence
- Analysis
Paragraph 3: Thesis Paragraph
- Thesis (“In this essay, I argue that …”)
- What’s at Stake (“If so, …”)
Paragraph 4: Begin the Body of the Paper …
The Thesis that is a Term: In this opening, your thesis essentially involves the presentation of a new term that you’ve coined. As such, your discussion of terms would come after your thesis, not before.